Rune Factory 3: Simple Curiosity
by Winter's ice
Summary: It was meant to be a typical evening for Micah. He was just going to take a relaxing bath and then go home. He didn't expect Pia to come up with the grand question about where does his clothes go when he transform into a wooly. And he also didn't expect both her and Sakuya to come up with scenarios about how it worked, including one that causes him to run home out of fear.


**So, I started to re-play Rune Factory 3 after two years or so and I got this random idea, "What happens to Micah's clothes when he transform?" and so, here's the result of that though. Anyhow, I hope you enjoy this!**

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**Date Published: 5/28/13  
Word Count: 2,921  
****Page Count: 5**

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**Simple Curiosity **

"Gahhh, what a long day!" spoke a voice aloud while stretching his body with the orange sun beating down on him. The voice belonged to a fellow simply known as Micah; a blond-haired, blue-eyed youth who for some odd reason wore detached sleeves.

He was standing outside of his home, the Sharance Tree. His eyes wandered up the large tree and admired its beauty for a moment. The setting sun that was falling behind it also helped enhance the beauty of the tree and it appeared to glow.

Micah here just finished up his work for the day and was enjoying the spring breeze flowing through the area. The smell of the tree and season bristled against his nose every time the wind picked up and he loved the sent. Something about the smell just made him feel so serene and always made him feel better after a long and tiring day.

After admiring both his home and the scent of spring he began to walk up the path that was to the right of his humble home. Micah was following his usual routine; after a long and sometimes aggravating day, he would go and take a hot bath. The bathhouse was stationed in the same building as the inn which was run by a mother and daughter duo, Shino and Sakuya. The family also includes the adopted mermaid Pia who helped take care of the bath.

Micah reached the inn/bathhouse in no time since it wasn't that far from his home. The building was built in an eastern style, and it was extremely large and finally built. Attached to it was a small wooden bridge which hovered over a body of water. When he walked up to the entrance there was two fox-like statues on both sides staring at one another.

"Those things are always so creepy," Micah mumbled to himself after glancing at the fox on his left. He never quite understood the point of them being there, and the essence of the two statues seemed unnecessary. After his glance at them, he opened the sliding door and walked inside the building.

The inside was much like one from the outside would expect, a finally made building that gave off a grand vibe. The building was built completely with wood and had various carpets and furniture spread about. Micah walked up to the counter and spoke in his normal voice to the woman there, "Hello Pia."

"Ahh, Micah! It's no nice to see you!" replied the clerk happily who happened to be Pia. When Micah first met her he would have never thought she was a mermaid. It was true he thought she looked a little odd with those strangely shaped ears and pink hair, but he never thought anything of it. It wasn't until one rainy day he ran into her in the plaza did he learn of her true nature. It wasn't something that could be easily overlooked unless it was normal for people to grow a fin out of the blue.

"Yeah same here," he smiled and gave her a sweet smile. Pia was the definition of a pure airhead, but that very thing was what made her cute. Though at times she could be really odd, much like her desire to destroy all the squid in the world and save all of the fishes. That, and it didn't help that she planned to destroy the home of the fishing siblings as revenge for capturing and devouring so many of her comrades. He could still recall that day and he always felt like face palming and thinking to himself, _"What is wrong with the people in this village?" _

"Oh Micah! How are ya doin'?" spoke another voice from another spot in the room. He turned his head to the left and saw Sakuya manning her stall. There, she would sell a bunch of random things or "souvenirs" as she would put it. The items she sold where just a bunch of random things she found while wandering around the village and the areas that surrounded it.

"I'm doing fine. Today was a little hard, but besides that I'm good! What about you?" he retorted to her with a smile. Sakuya was much calmer than Pia most of the time, but depending on the situation she could be really goofy. That really only happens when the two where at their comedy act which really needed work. Besides that, she's basically a little businesswoman who certainly loved her money and would do anything to get a profit. So far she hasn't extorted any money out of anyone, but when that day comes he knows he'll be the one to put a stop to it.

" I'm doing great as ever! This one traveler came in and bought a lot of stuff so I made a huge profit!" she declared with much enthusiasm while moving up and down on her heels. After that she continued and asked, "Though what happen to you? Did you get stuck doing a request for someone and got a crummy reward?"

"Well not exactly. The request I did involved fighting some monsters and I got knocked around a bit and hurt my shoulder a little," he explained while grabbing his right shoulder. The monster rammed into him from behind sent him flying across the area. When he fell to the ground, he landed on his shoulder and it has been bothering him the whole day. Just the thought of taking a hot bath made him feel like jumping for joy.

"Ahh, poor Micah!" he heard Pia declare, "Just take a bath and that shoulder of yours will feel better in no time!"

He turned his head back to her and responded, "Well, that's why I'm here after all!" he said happily while going for his wallet and pulling out three hundred gold and handed it to her.

"Thank you very much!" she spoke happily while giving him a bright smile.

With that he walked over to the men's side of the bath. As soon as he walked in the humidity from the water hit his body. Inside, all he did was remove his clothing as one is expected to do. After that he grabbed a towel and walked into the hot water and sat down. The water helped to both relax his stiff muscles and his injured shoulder. He spent about ten minutes inside the bath, and enjoyed every minute of it. To him, this was one of the things he enjoyed the most.

After some time he exited the bath and began to walk towards the door to head on home to make dinner and have a good nights sleep. Before he could leave he heard Pia call out to him. He stopped in his tracks and turned his body to face her and asked, "What is it Pia?"

She just looked at him for a few moments with a serious look on her face. Micah just looked at her, wondering what she wanted. His eyes wandered to Sakuya who just gave him a shrug.

"Micah," she finally spoke up with the same serious tone, "I've always wanted to know, just what happens to your clothes when you turn into a wooly?"

He just looked at her with a surprised gaze. Now this is out of the blue, just why does she care about his clothes? Granted, it was a good question and all but it didn't mean he had an answer.

"Yeah, I want to know too! What does happen to your clothes? That, and where does that little acorn hat and bandana come from?" chimed in Sakuya.

Micah just stood there with a dazed look on his face, now both of them are interested in his clothes? Even he himself doesn't know how that works, it's like some sort of logic you'd find in some fantasy book. He just stood there like a student who was called on in class and had no answer.

"Oh, I have an idea!" yelled Pia happily while clasping her hands together, "You have a magical transformation scene that takes your clothes away and they magically float into a closet run by fishes!"

"Fishes…?" he mumbled to himself while watching the mermaid go on about her idea. He wasn't really sure how she could come to this conclusion but didn't say a word.

"Yeah! While your normal clothes float in, they send out your wooly outfit! That, and they protect your clothes from the evil squids!" she continued on happily.

"That's an interesting idea Pia," added in Sakuya, "But why would there be fishes in this strange dimension and why are they protecting and swapping out Micah's clothing? While we're talking about how he changes his clothes, does the fish do it for him? Like his body flashes a golden color like his fur and the fishes float by and then take off his clothes?"

Micah looked at her and thought with a sour look on his face, _"Now you're joining on this fish brained idea?!" _It seemed like she noticed and just laughed at him, it appears she's enjoying this whole thing.

"Hmm, that could be it!" Pia declared while balling her right hand into a fist and lightly placing it into her left palm, "After the fishes take off his clothes they swim-no, fly away! Then after he's naked he turns into a wooly and more fishes come by and drop off his wooly outfit!"

"I feel violated now," Micah spoke after Pia finished her odd declaration. He couldn't help shiver a bit at the imagination of fishes flying at him and taking away his clothes along with seeing him naked, _"Those must be some perverted fish,"_ he thought to himself while lowering his head a bit, _"I wonder how they can come up with these wacky ideas. I mean really, magical transformation scenes, flying fish taking off my clothes, what's next? Some guy in a tuxedo and a talking cat?" _

"Don't worry Micah!" he heard Pia say. He raised his head to see her and she continued on, "The fishes won't do anything bad! The only perverts are the squids that wants to steal your clothes!"

With that his head dropped all the way and a long sigh escaped his mouth, "So fishes help me transform and protect my clothes from a bunch clothes stealing perverted squids? That makes tons of sense," he added a dash of sarcasm with that last line. Nonetheless he couldn't help but laugh at the idea, it was so far fetched but it made so much sense when it came from Pia.

"Pia, I think I know what you're up too," Micah heard Sakuya say. He raised his head up a bit to look over to the money loving girl who was now leaning her side against her stand, "You're tryin' to convince Micah to join your side against the war on squids and for him to help you protect the fish! You don't want him being on team fishing with Carmen and Carlos!" declared Sakuya with much enthusiasm as if she just solved a murder mystery of some sorts, "You're tryin' to convince him that fishes help him so he would help you!"

When Micah looked over to Pia, she gave out a little squeak and was twitching a little bit. She then moved her head away from Sakuya to look to the other side of the room.

"Busted!" Sakuya declared happily while dragging out the syllables of the word. She then motioned her hand to her face as if she was pushing up a pair of invisible glasses and spoke, "No one can defeat detective Sakuya! Not even you Pia!"

Micah just watched the exchange and laughed at it, those two can be funny when they weren't trying. He finally raised his head fully and spoke happily, "You two are an interesting pair." He wanted to add, "And only an idiot would believe that nonsense," but he didn't want to be mean.

Sakuya went on and added, "I guess since Pia was tryin' to convert you to her side, so that makes her theory would be void. I guess my original thoughts might be true."

"Hey, my idea could still be possible!" Pia declared with a small pout, "But what is your idea?"

"Well, I always thought Micah just took off he clothes and put them in his bag or some other place. Then he would turn into a wooly and put on his wooly outfit," she explained in a simple tone.

_"At least that sounds possible unlike Pia's original idea," _Micah thought as he stood still. Now he started to ponder, just what does happen to his clothes? If only he could remember where he was from he could find his father and ask him. From the bits he could remember his father was the wooly and could answer his question.

"It was either the idea or-" she began but paused for a moment.

"Or what?" Micah spoke up in an uncertain voice. He had a feeling he wasn't going to like what she was going to say, _"Just why can't we stick to the plausible theory? It makes the most sense."_

"Or you're a nudist most of the time," she said with a shrug as if it was a typical sentence.

His face turned as red as a tomato in summer and yelled, "How did you come to the conclusion that I'm a nudist?!" This idea was even weirder than Pia's! There was no way he would just walk around naked! What was the point of him walking around naked until he felt like turning into a wooly? This theory doesn't even explain where the wooly accessories come from! It made no sense to him at all.

"Micah. I would have never pictured you doing such a shameful thing," he heard an older female voice emanating from behind him. He slowly moved his body around to come face to face with Shino who seemed to be giving off an evil vibe despite the fact she appeared to be calm. Though, out of all the families in the village, he could actually see the resemblance between her and Sakuya.

"Shino, hold on a minute! That wasn't what it sounded like!" he yelled in a panicked tone while waving his arms back and forth so they would make an x. He knew that she could get rather horrifying at times but this was the first time he would have to suffer her wrath. Maybe it was due him being accustomed to her calm demeanor that made her appear much more frightening.

"It sounded like you'd just said, "I'm a nudist!" to the girls here. I frankly don't like the idea of someone like that being around them, especially when there is no one else around," she spoke in her normal tone but he could sense the demonic vibe. He looked at the woman hoping to explain things but he felt a chill run up his spine as soon as he tried to open his mouth.

_"Perhaps challenging her while like this is a very bad idea,"_ was what he thought before he turned his head over to Sakuya and yelled, "You better clear up this mess you made! I really don't want anything bad happening to me in my sleep!" and with that he ran right past Shino and for the door. He didn't want to run away but his life could have possible depend on it.

He had heard all of the rumors about her in the past. Sure they where rumors but he had no doubt in his mind that she could pull out a weapon and pulverize him. She was probably one of the strongest people in town and picking a fight with her didn't sound smart. As he ran out of the door he heard Shino say, "Smart move. Sometimes retreat is the best option."

After that he ran all the way home while yelling inside his mind, "_What are wrong with the people in this village?! Why couldn't I fallen in a saner place?" _And with that he ran into his house and made sure to lock the door.

"Why is that woman so scary?" he said aloud while walking into his home, "This is probably the saddest day in my life. I never felt this ashamed before," with that he walked over to his bed and laid down and closed his eyes.

By the next morning he had received a letter (how it got there so fast he may never know) from Shino. It appeared that the girls explained what they where talking about and that whole nudist thing was Sakuya's idea. She apologized to him about both her behavior and how she scared the living daylights out of him. Besides that she left him one last piece of interesting info, "I personally like the idea about you transforming and having the fishes taking off your clothes. Though, I think it to would be even more interesting if you where in subjective and girly poses."

His head fell so he could see the ground and he gave out a, "Gahh. Now even she is making fun of me? I really wished I knew where my clothes went and then this whole mess would have been avoided." It was that day he swore to learn the truth about his transformation and was even more determined to find his family.

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**Well, this is longer than I expected. This one is just random but I hope it wasn't bad. It was nice to use different characters from the game, but I hope that aren't that out of character. Anyhow thank you for reading and please review so I know what you thought of this! **


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